“Pressure” Kylie Thesz – Second Place
I woke to your thumbs digging craters into my hips as you tried to pull down my favorite satin froggy prince pajamas. Tell me: are they really hips if they belong to an eight-year-old girl? I woke and stared at you; my eyes skinning you with a fear I’d never felt before. You left. I should have followed suit but instead let my petrified body experience fight or flight for the first time. Moments later, I watched the door handle turn the same way it always did but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t dissolve into the floor. You laid behind me and slipped your hands between my beating heart and silky shirt. Tell me: could you feel the pounding blood rushing through my body? My brain chose flight— I soared away from you before you could destroy the blossoming blue-eyed, blonde-haired babe with your flame and destruction. Pressure. I wake to you inside me. Pounding. Beating. With every push, I feel another piece of my soul fall away. With every pull, another ache in another limb that must belong To another body. How could I let this happen again?
106
Vortex
Poetry
